It’s completely legal for women to walk around topless in New York

It’s completely legal for women to walk around topless in New York State

“The weather was lovely in New York City last weekend, and Moira Johnston, 29, took full advantage by strolling the balmy streets of lower Manhattan without a shirt or bra. “”It’s to raise awareness that it’s legal for a woman to be topless anywhere a guy can be without a shirt since 1992 here in New York state,”” she told Atisha Paulson, a roving photographer for the website racked, who caught up with her near bustling Union Square Park. In 1992, the New York state court of appeals ruled that women could go topless unless they were “”engaged in commerce.””
With her sweet smile, wedge sandals, a-line skirt, and “”Jackie O”” shades, Johnston looks more like a hip kindergarten teacher than a radical activist, but female breasts are certainly a politicized part of a woman’s body here in the United States. Our culture is obsessed with them-at least 300,000 women a year get breast implants-but, at the same time, they are taboo. Even breastfeeding is suspect unless mom is nursing a baby doll-like infant under a thick blanket, please, as the recent hubbub over the Time Magazine breastfeeding cover attests. Its as if the naked mammary is going to drive men so wild they won’t be able to control their impulses.”